Spending on health to hit all-time high in 2005, hitting 10.4 per cent of GDP

The more we spend on public health -the more it costs . We need to find a way to improve the effectiveness and service delivery for our money . The spending has outpaced our ability to sustain it- QJ


Helen Branswell, Canadian PressPublished: December 8, 2005
TORONTO -- Health spending in Canada is expected to hit $142 billion this year, bringing expenditures in this sector to 10.4 per cent of GDP, an all time high, the Canadian Institute for Health Information reported Wednesday.

An 11-per-cent jump in spending on prescription and non-prescribed medications fuelled the rise - prompting the head of an independent health watchdog organization to predict governments will be moved to address the issue of rising drug consumption and costs.
Michael Decter, chair of the Health Council of Canada, said the significant and ongoing increase in spending on medications is outstripping the increases in costs for other parts of the health sector, including the running of hospitals and paying of physicians.

"When I look at these numbers, I say: 'Well, (with) hospitals and doctors, there are issues, but there aren't real cost pressure issues.' (With) drugs, there's a real cost pressure issue," Decter said.
"It's made more complicated in Canada by the federal-provincial issue . . . but I would say you're going to hear a lot more about the drug issue," he said, noting a task force is to report to federal, provincial and territorial health ministers on issues of drug costs and drug plan coverage next June.

Although Decter was chair of the Canadian Institute for Health Information before taking on the role as head of the Health Council, he had no involvement in the writing of this report.
It noted health spending increased 7.7 per cent overall, though when that figure was adjusted to sift out the impact of inflation the rate of increase was five per cent this year over last, the institute's annual look at health-care expenditures revealed.
"Over the course of the last several years, health-care spending has been growing faster than our economy," institute president Glenda Yeates said in a release